A team of Italian scientists has claimed to have developed a couple of vaccines that they claim neutralises the novel coronavirus in human cells.
This could be among the most visible progress amongst the hundreds of vaccine candidates that are being tested around the world against the virus that has caused a global pandemic and visibly sunk the economy into a recession.
The report on Arab News, quoting Italian news agency ANSA, said a team of scientists from the company Takis was able to isolate antibodies in mice that blocked the virus from infecting human cells.
Testing was carried out at Rome’s Spallanzani Institute.
The vaccine candidates currently being developed are based on the genetic material of DNA protein “spike”. Researchers said the vaccine will be injected intramuscularly which will be followed by a brief electrical impulse.
“Researchers believe that this makes their vaccine particularly effective for generating functional antibodies against the “spike” protein, in particular in the lung cells, which are the most vulnerable to coronavirus,” the report said.
The report quoted Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis, as saying that the company was keen to collaborate internationally to speed up the process of development of the vaccine.
The coronavirus pandemic has put the global scientific community in mission mode to develop a vaccine. Ordinarily, it takes at least five years to develop a vaccine but experts say that period could be shorter in this case.
